Chopsticks and Fortune Cookies
by Tigerlily06
Summary: A chance encounter for Horatio becomes much more. First chapter in a new series. Mild slash implied. Don't like Do Not Read!


"Hey," Rhonda said as she poked her head into the layout room. "I got dinner."

"A few more minutes and I can take a break," Speed said, not bothering to look up. He was on the trail of an elusive piece of evidence that would crack his current case wide open.

"Szechwan Beef waits for no man."

"Go on then."

"Speed, it'll get cold," Rhonda tried to reason.

"I like it cold."

"You are a freak of nature," Rhonda muttered in disgust.

"Takes one to know one," Speed retorted. He looked up and gave her a cheeky grin.

Rhonda rolled her eyes at him before strolling down the hall to the break room.

&/&/&

"What's in that one?" Speed asked, pointing at the container setting off to the side with his chopsticks.

"Sesame Chicken."

"Give it here," Speed demanded. "I'm starving."

"It's not for you," Rhonda replied as she pushed the container further out of reach of her roommate.

"Then who?"

"Your boss. The mysterious H." Rhonda had been making her dinner runs to the lab for over a month and still hadn't met Horatio Caine. He always seemed to be away from the lab no matter when she arrived to rescue Speed from his workaholic tendencies.

"I haven't seen him in a few hours, so he could have called it a day," Speed surmised as he reached for the container again.

Rhonda slapped his hand. "I doubt he called it a day. He's probably lurking around somewhere."

"What makes you say that?"

"Calleigh told me the other day that you two are two peas in a pod," Rhonda remarked with an enigmatic smile.

"Two peas in a pod?"

Rhonda nodded as she picked out the broccoli from her Chicken and Broccoli.

"Must be a Southern thing and wholly incomprehensible," the brunette muttered. "So, what is the point you are trying to make?"

"You're a workaholic and a bachelor, right?"

"Is that a trick question?" Speed had the sinking feeling that he was about to fall into another one of the honey blond's traps.

"No."

"So what if I am?"

"What?"

"A workaholic," Speed admitted waving his chopsticks in the air. "It doesn't mean H is one."

"You emulate Horatio; therefore, it stands to reason that he is one as well."

"That's a twisted way of saying, 'No you can't have that.'" Speed rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Twisted is as twisted does," Rhonda retorted with a shrug.

"Trying to have an intelligent conversation with you is like talking to Bullwinkle," Speed observed. Out of the corner of his eye he caught Horatio walking past the break room stopping and turning around.

"I refuse to pull a rabbit out of my hat," Rhonda grumbled.

"You're not wearing one."

"Ooops…" Rhonda sighed. "I must have left it in the car. Can I chalk this bout of nuttiness up to lack of caffeine?"

"I think it would be safer for me to assume lack of sleep instead."

"That makes me an insomniac," Rhonda said. "But, you and Horatio are still workaholics."

"I'm what?" Horatio inquired from the doorway.

At the sound of Horatio's voice, Rhonda's head whipped around and their eyes locked. Her brain kicked into panic mode and she had to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. _Magically delicious_, she thought before pulling her eyes from his and breaking the spell. "A starving man?" she hazard a guess.

"Nice save," Speed teased. He had caught her gob smacked reaction to Horatio. A lot of women had them when the redhead was around and Speed found it highly amusing.

"You're just jealous that I can think on my feet," Rhonda muttered. It was a weak defense, but it was the best she had at the moment. "And, you can't."

"As if!"

"Oh, that was original!"

"Bite me!"

"You would enjoy it too much," Rhonda reasoned.

"H, help me out here?" Speed pleaded.

"Why?" Horatio walked into the room and joined them at the table. "You seem to have it well in hand, Speed."

Rhonda snickered.

Speed tossed his napkin at her. "Brat!"

The honey blond stuck her tongue out at him as she tried to forget how close Horatio was sitting to her. His leg brushed against hers causing an electric shock to shoot up her leg. She had never been so attracted to some on a first meeting.

"Oh, now that's adult," Speed snarked.

Horatio chuckled. "If I didn't know better, Speed, I would guess you two were related."

"Nope," Rhonda replied. "Just roommates."

Speed suddenly remembered his manners. "Horatio this Rhonda Morgan. Rhonda the mysterious H," he introduced them.

"Mysterious?" Horatio asked a skeptical eyebrow brushed his hairline.

"I've been coming here rescuing Speed from starvation for over a month and I hadn't seen you around, so I took to calling you the mysterious boss," Rhonda explained, secretly hoping she didn't sound like a rambling idiot.

"I see," Horatio remarked with a smile. There was something about Rhonda that he found compelling, and the first time since his divorce he was openly interested in a woman. "So how do I thank you for keeping my Trace Expert alive?"

"Give him the weekend off?" Rhonda suggested as she passed Horatio the box of Sesame Chicken and chopsticks.

"Rhonda," Speed growled in warning.

"I can do that," Horatio said with a knowing grin. "Then he and Eric can go reef diving."

Speed blushed and ducked his head. He was going to kill his lover. "So everybody knows?"

"If they didn't," Horatio remarked as he accepted the box of Sesame Chicken. He dug in not surprised to find that he was really hungry. He had been skipping meals again. "After yesterday's little display, they do now."

"I'm going to kill him," Speed vowed as he cleaned up.

"Please don't," Rhonda begged. "It was hell hiding the last body."

Speed gave her a skeptical eyebrow. "I don't recall you sitting in the jail cell with me."

"Guinsu knives were best thing ever invented by a man," Rhonda tossed back falling right back into their bantering routine.

Horatio paused in eating. His chopsticks were poised over the box as he took in the two roommates. "Somehow, that just became too much information."

"Megan always claimed you had too vivid of an imagination, H."

"Hmmm…" Horatio murmured.

Speed took that as his clue to drop the subject. He knew Megan Donner's sudden and unexplained departure from the lab was a sore point for Horatio. "Right…" He got up and tossed Rhonda his fortune cookie. "I've got a couple more pieces of evidence to process before I can call it a day."

"Alright, but if you get too tired, call and I'll come get you," Rhonda said. "I don't want you breaking your neck on the Ducati."

Speed rolled his eyes. "You are too much sometimes," he groused.

"But you love me anyway," she countered with a grin.

Speed dropped a kiss on top of Rhonda's head and muttered, "I guess I do," before making a quick escape.

&/&/&

Horatio had watched the exchange between the two roommates and had felt a pang of jealousy. He wanted what Speed had with Rhonda, even though it was a platonic relationship.

The redhead had to admit to himself that he was tired of going home to an empty condo; tired of not having anyone to spend time with; tired of waking up alone.

He sighed and Rhonda gave him a quizzical look.

"A penny for them?" she inquired.

"Not worth that much," he murmured. He finished off the Sesame Chicken and pushed the box aside.

"Oh?"

"Just feeling sorry for myself," he admitted, thus surprising himself. He rarely revealed anything about himself to his closest friends and here he was doing just that with a mere acquaintance.

Rhonda found herself reaching over and patting Horatio's hand in a gesture of sympathy. It wasn't something she normally did, but Horatio's honesty spoke to a part of her she had thought long dead.

Horatio felt a tingle go up his arm as he turned his hand over and entwined his fingers with hers. He looked up at Rhonda to see if she was comfortable with such a bold move and he caught her smiling.

"So," he remarked, deftly changing the subject. "How did you and Speed meet?"

"Traffic court," Rhonda replied, blushing. She had to will her mind to stay focused. Horatio holding her hand had her thinking about other things she wouldn't mind he held. "We were both there for getting one too many speeding tickets."

"I told him the day he bought that bike it would bring him nothing but trouble," he commented, wryly.

"Yes, it certainly attracts a lot of attention."

Horatio raised an eyebrow and said, "I would wager a week's pay that the electric blue Chevelle parked next to it attracts its fair share as well."

Rhonda smirked and resisted the urge to duck her head. "So you know your cars, Lieutenant."

"I know a little bit about a lot of things, Rhonda," the redhead commented with a wicked grin. He never liked being called Lieutenant because it made him think of being in the military, but the way Rhonda had said it was sexy as hell.

Rhonda leaned closer to Horatio and purred, "Do you now? How interesting?"

Horatio's phone rang reminding him where he was. He pulled his hand from Rhonda's and reached into his coat pocket to answer it. "Sorry," he mouthed.

Rhonda shrugged and leaned back to study him as he listened to the person on the other end. The hand that had held hers was now a set of drumming fingers, which to Rhonda didn't bode well for the person or persons who dared to destroy Horatio's quiet evening.

Horatio snapped his phone close with an annoyed growl about the stupidity of tourists.

Rhonda snickered. "There really shouldn't be a penalty for shooting them since they are in season and all."

"Please tell me you aren't licensed in this state to carry a concealed weapon."

"I am," Rhonda told the redhead.

"Why don't I find that disturbing?" he countered, realizing that he was falling under Rhonda's spell.

"Because I appear mostly harmless?" Rhonda quipped.

Horatio smirked.

Rhonda shrugged. She looked down at her watch and swore. "I hate to cut this short, but I have to get moving. I have to be in class in forty-five minutes and if traffic behaves I'll only be five minutes late."

"That is without breaking the law, I hope," Horatio teased as rose from his chair and helped Rhonda clean up the empty boxes.

"It will be if I borrow the Ducati."

"You don't value your life much, do you?"

"I just got Speed a weekend off with his lover, so he won't kill me," Rhonda surmised as she leaned against the refrigerator and crack open her fortune cookie.

"Can you be certain of that?"

"Yes," Rhonda replied. "He knows how much I i love /i my Abnormal Psych professor and would do nothing to keep me away from the freaking idiot."

Horatio laughed.

Rhonda looked up from reading her fortune and smiled. Speed had told her that Horatio rarely laughed, but that if one got him to it was a precious gift. To her, it was infectious and she giggled. "So me being sarcastic is all it takes to get a laugh from the great Horatio Caine?" she teased.

"Great?"

Rhonda shrugged her shoulders rubbing against the refrigerator door.

"Have dinner with me?" Horatio suddenly asked, feeling slightly self-conscious. It had been awhile since he had asked a woman on a date, and now he found that he was holding his breath in anticipation of Rhonda's answer.

"We just did," Rhonda countered.

"You aren't going to make this easy on me, are you?"

"It wouldn't be any fun if I just capitulated, would it?"

"You have a strange idea of what constitutes fun," the redhead observed as he stepped closer to her subtly invading her personal space.

"So I have been told," Rhonda said looking up into his face and losing herself in the depths of his dark blue eyes.

Horatio placed a hand on either side of Rhonda's head and leaned in. He ghosted his lips across hers. "Join me at Rosinelli's for a nice dinner and I'll take you dancing under the stars afterwards."

"You certainly a silver tongued devil, aren't you?" Rhonda breathed as her mind gibbered at her that he had just kissed her.

The redhead leaned in again and this time he sucked Rhonda's bottom lip between his causing her to moan and open her mouth. He deepened the kiss when he felt her fingers entwine in his hair.

They broke off the kiss when the need to breathe became too important to ignore anymore.

Horatio showered Rhonda's face with little kisses. He felt himself by the second becoming more and more intoxicated with her mere presence. He couldn't wait to get her in his bed, and that thought shocked him.

He stepped back and gave her space to breathe. He looked at her expectantly.

"Yes, I'll go to dinner with you," she conceded.

"Good," he said with a throaty purr. He cleared his throat. "Now, how about I give you a ride to class, so you won't be too late?"

"Yes," Rhonda said. "I would like that."

Horatio escorted Rhonda from the break room his hand resting in the small of her back.

&/&/&

Speed walked into the break room later. He went to the fridge to grab a soda and he spotted a small piece of paper on the floor in front of it. He leaned down and picked it. He noticed that it was a fortune from his and Rhonda's dinner.

He flipped it over and read:

i Romance in the form of a redhead will enter your life. /i 

The brunette smiled.

He grabbed a soda and returned to the garage where his lover was processing a car linked to a drive-by shooting. He would thank Tyler later for making him a special fortune cookie.

"Did it work?" his lover asked.

"Like a charm," Speed answered as he pulled the Cuban into his arms.

"So how long before they figure out that they've been set up?"

"Hopefully, never."

"But?"

"We'll worry about that when the time comes," Speed said with a wicked grin. "Now, where were we?"

TBC…


End file.
